Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (Hugo Award Winner)

by Jordan S. Carroll

Overview

Reveals the alt-right’s project to claim science fiction and—by extension—the future

Fascists such as Richard Spencer interpret science fiction films and literature as saying only white men have the imagination required to invent a high-tech future. Other white nationalists envision racist utopias filled with Aryan supermen and all-white space colonies. Speculative Whiteness traces these ideas through the entangled histories of science fiction culture and white supremacist politics, showing that debates about representation in science fiction films and literature are struggles over who has the right to imagine and inhabit the future. Although fascists insist that tomorrow belongs to them, they have always been and will continue to be contested by antifascist fans willing to fight for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781517917081
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	10/22/2024
Series:	Forerunners: Ideas First
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jordan S. Carroll is author of Reading the Obscene: Transgressive Editors and the Class Politics of US Literature, which won the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.

Editorial Reviews

"Carroll reminds us that our future is contingent. Fascists have a vision for the future that excludes most of humanity, but fascists can be defeated. The future is for everyone—if we make it that way." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"A small book with a mighty punch." —Choice Magazine

"The book is an important chronicle documenting the past decade or so of right wing extremism at the level of aesthetics and political ontology, and there is nothing else quite like it."—De Facto Podcast

"[For]  those  who  consider  the  world  of  culture  as  less meaningful  and  important  than  realpolitik,  drawing  connections  between  science  fiction and the far right may seem frivolous at best. Carroll’s engaging and concise book, however, convincingly dispels such misgivings by showing how science fiction offers a unique window into the inner workings of key far-right thinkers, both past and present."—Ethnic and Racial Studies

"What makes Speculative Whiteness. . .by Jordan S. Carroll such a compelling study is its demonstration that the connection between the alt-right—arguably the dominant political force in the US and perhaps globally—and certain strands of science fiction is far from superficial." —Critical Inquiry

"Speculative Whiteness provides a chilling analysis of what the worst people want to do to us, now and tomorrow. Armed with that knowledge, we can, perhaps, chart a path to different and better stars." —New Humanist

From the Publisher